ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister Rehman Malik said Friday that militant group Islamic State's (IS) network is present in the country and that it is led by Yousuf Salfi.

Speaking to media representatives in Islamabad, where the former interior minister had arrived to attend a meeting of the missing persons commission, Malik claimed that security personnel had arrested several IS militants during raids conducted in different parts of the country.

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He said that being a former interior minister, he had his own means of gathering information from sources which had provided him with information regarding the presence of IS militants in the country.

The Pakistan Peoples Party leader also said that the IS militant group had emerged after infighting between different groups under the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) umbrella group .

Also Read: Islamic State fears grow in Pakistan and Afghanistan

The statement from the former interior minister comes despite a denial of IS presence by incumbent Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Take a look: Nisar rules out presence of IS militants in Pakistan

Chalking in favour of IS had appeared in various places across all four provinces of the country causing a ripple of concern through the security administration.

A police probe into wall chalking was launched in the outskirts of Karachi and in Taxila where flags of the group, also known locally by its Arabic acronym ‘Daish’, were fixed to electricity poles near the Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF).

Similarly, police in Lahore arrested two suspects for plastering Islamic State stickers on walls in various localities.

Read: The IS threat

Leaflets calling for support for IS were seen in several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Bannu and South Waziristan tribal region's Wana area. Afghan refugee camps were particular targets of the IS propaganda.